The present invention is in the field of aircraft wheel systems. More specifically this invention relates to a grease retention system for an aircraft wheel assembly.
Aircraft wheel systems rely on bearings. Bearings rely on adequate grease amounts to continue performance to a desired level. If a bearing loses too much grease, a bearing failure may occur. Typically bearings lose grease during use by migration caused by centrifugal forces, and other forces during wheel operation. This loss of grease may jeopardize aircraft safety, cause unscheduled removals, and cause other aircraft component damage, and reduce the useful life of the bearings.
Grease retainers have been used in the past to contain the grease in the bearings and prevent migration. These retainers were typically elastomeric rings, one each for each half of the wheel assembly. The wheel assembly would require a machined groove and sufficient grease retainer register width for this retaining ring to seat in and maintain its correctly installed position. Thus existing wheel assemblies without this machined groove can not accept such retaining rings, and wheel assemblies without sufficient grease retainer register width cannot be machined to add the required groove to accept such retaining rings.
A grease retainer is desired which would not require machining of the wheel assembly retaining ring groove, thus reducing costs on initial manufacture, and allow for incorporating grease retainers on existing wheel assemblies without requiring retrofit machining of the wheel assembly retaining ring groove, thus reducing retrofit costs on existing wheel assemblies. A grease retainer is desired that also permits the incorporation of grease retainers on existing wheel assemblies that do not have sufficient grease retainer register width to accommodate a retaining ring groove.